UA fans can expect a next-level experience at Mercedes-Benz Stadium

By Molly Catherine WalshSpecial to The Tuscaloosa News

Sunday

Aug 20, 2017 at 8:05 AM

ATLANTA – It looks like Atlanta, it feels like Atlanta and it certainly smells like Atlanta, but the enormous and shiny, new Mercedes-Benz Stadium now looms over the city like a main character in a “Transformers” movie.

Is it from the future? Will it move by itself? Can you touch it?

No, yes and yes.

Billed as “The Finest Sports and Entertainment Facility in the World,” it is pretty much going to rock every football fan’s world. Not just football either; soccer fans and concert-goers, too.

The stadium will host the Alabama Crimson Tide’s football season opener, when UA plays Florida State on Saturday, Sept. 2.

The first thing attendees will encounter, if they use the stadium’s front entrance, will be a large, stylish, steel statue of a falcon perched atop a football, a symbol signifying it as home of the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League.

The front entrance leads to a balcony overlooking the field. The 71,000 black and red stadium seats surround the turf. Behind each goalpost is a transparent wall called the ‘window to the city,’ looking over downtown Atlanta’s skyline.

“The window to the city literally sheds a light on the stadium that you never had in the Georgia Dome,” said Steve Cannon, CEO of AMB Group, which runs the stadium. “The natural light that covers the field and flows into the concourses as well to allow fans and teams to feel like they are connected to the heart of downtown.”

Directly over the center of the field is the 360-degree, 63,000-square foot HD video halo board that will show highlights, replays and live action. Above the halo board is the retractable roof constructed of 27,000 tons of steel and modeled after the Roman Pantheon.

The roof will remain closed for the Alabama-FSU game and other events early this fall. Calibration on getting the retractable roof to open and close automatically is still being worked out.

The building is eco-friendly, with 47 percent less water use than a typical building its size, and 4,000 solar panels to generate enough energy to power 10 Falcons games.

With 2,000 high-definition television screens throughout the building, it will be nearly impossible to miss a moment of play.

The Atlanta United soccer team and the Atlanta Falcons were extremely hands-on in the design and building of their locker rooms. Everything from the lockers to the chairs were hand-picked by the players to suit the needs and preferences of the team.

“We really wanted to listen to our players and give them a comfortable space,” Atlanta Falcons president and CEO Rich McKay said. “It’s also important to create a locker room that will help any team that plays here to feel at home and to not feel like guests whether it be Alabama or anyone else.”

Alabama and FSU will not get to use the host teams’ locker facilities, McKay said. Each team will use a separate locker room built to specifications for visiting NFL teams.

Staying with the theme of being true to downtown Atlanta, well-known local chefs partnered with the stadium to bring fans affordable and local food. Restaurants like Molly B’s Kitchen and Fries Up have opened locations in the $1.5 billion stadium. With 24 bars and restaurants and 673 points of food sales, fans will find it hard to go hungry during a game.

The new stadium has instituted fan-friendly concessions pricing, as well as free refills of soft drinks.

“There are over 1,000 taps to refill your drink yourself for free and dozens of places to try something new like beer-infused meat,” said senior vice president of fan experience Mike Gomes. “We want fans to experience new and great food while also maintaining an efficient atmosphere.”

The “mega-column” video screen inside the front entranceway is also a neat touch that might scare small children. The column is a 6,700-square foot and 101-foot high display screen that can depict Atlanta Falcons players or other images as larger than life on the screen while they pound on their chests and nod their heads in an intimidating manner, as if they are ready to jump off the screen.

Keeping up with social media to live tweet the game won’t be an issue either with 4,000 miles of fiber optic cable that run along the ceiling of the concourses, assuring smartphone connectivity.

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